No Power inside Camper
Posted: May 27th, 2015, 5:32 pm
Thought I would pass this on, even though it may be a one of a kind thing. I went out to where we store our 24rls to install the 12V battery and get the refrig cooled down before leaving on a trip later today. Everything was dead inside. I did notice my tongue jack and slideout still had power. Started tracing the 12V. It was ok on both sides of the cutout switch inside the storage compartment. Pulled out the AC 12VDC converter and saw a large red wire coming out of the converter that wasn't connected to anything. After a little investigation, I determined it had come loose from a large blue plastic wire nut. This was in the cabinet cavity behind the converter.
The red wire had probably been jarred loose during our last return trip. I hadn't realized it, because the power tongue jack is powered directly from the battery. That brings up something else worth noting. There are 4 wires connected to the plus side of my 12V battery post. The smallest one is unfused and feeds power to the electric brakes if the emergency breakaway switch is activated. The other 3 wires must be 8 or 10 gauge wire. All 3 have 30 amp inline fuses. One goes to the tongue jack. Another goes to the slideout. And the 3rd goes to the cutout switch inside the storage compartment and then on to the AC to 12VDC converter, as mentioned above.
I should also mention the inline fuses and battery connections must have been done by my dealer when they installed the battery and not Starcraft. They used large plastic wire nuts to make the connections, which should be ok. But I did notice 2 of them already had white corrosion after sitting outside. We just bought this 24rls new in April. Anyway, I took them apart and applied dielectric silicone grease before screwing the wire nuts back on. That stuff works great for outside connections.
The red wire had probably been jarred loose during our last return trip. I hadn't realized it, because the power tongue jack is powered directly from the battery. That brings up something else worth noting. There are 4 wires connected to the plus side of my 12V battery post. The smallest one is unfused and feeds power to the electric brakes if the emergency breakaway switch is activated. The other 3 wires must be 8 or 10 gauge wire. All 3 have 30 amp inline fuses. One goes to the tongue jack. Another goes to the slideout. And the 3rd goes to the cutout switch inside the storage compartment and then on to the AC to 12VDC converter, as mentioned above.
I should also mention the inline fuses and battery connections must have been done by my dealer when they installed the battery and not Starcraft. They used large plastic wire nuts to make the connections, which should be ok. But I did notice 2 of them already had white corrosion after sitting outside. We just bought this 24rls new in April. Anyway, I took them apart and applied dielectric silicone grease before screwing the wire nuts back on. That stuff works great for outside connections.